2009 Revenues Dropped 4.3% For Nation's 100 Top Media Companies

CHICAGO (Adage.com) --
The nation's top 100 media companies eked out 0.8% revenue growth
in 2008, but reported revenue for top media firms in the first
half of 2009 fell 4.3% from a year ago, according to Ad Age's analysis.

For the nation's 100 Leading Media Companies, revenue growth in
2008 was the lowest since 1991, and 2009 is set to show the first
decline since Ad Age began ranking media firms in 1981.

Remarkably, 11 of 2008's Media 100 firms filed for bankruptcy
over the past year, crushed in most cases by shrinking revenue
and debt loads taken on during the blind optimism of the boom.
Print media dominated the list: six newspaper companies, two
magazine publishers and two yellow-pages firms. No. 11 in Chapter
11 was a debt-laden cable firm, Charter Communications.

While the overall media market is in a funk, some sectors --
cable networks, cable systems, satellite TV and digital -- have
been growing.

Five of the 10 largest U.S. media firms are cable/satellite
players: Comcast, DirecTV, Time Warner Cable, Cox Enterprises and
Dish Network. Four of those five firms were involved in 2009
media deals:

Comcast Corp. in December struck a deal with General Electric
Co. to buy 51% of NBC Universal.

DirecTV Group in November merged with Liberty Entertainment.

Time Warner spun off Time Warner Cable (in March) and AOL (in
December) as standalone firms.

Cox in November agreed to sell a 65% stake in Travel Channel
to Scripps Networks Interactive.

Comcast displaced Time Warner as the nation's largest media
company after Time Warner's spinoffs. Based on 2009 net U.S.
media revenue, the shrunken Time Warner could fall to No. 4 on Ad
Age's next Media 100, behind Comcast, Walt Disney Co. and
DirecTV.